This invention relates to a telephone dial shielding device for selectively permitting or preventing access to the dialing area of a telephone face. Telephone locks have been in common use since the advent of the widespread use of the telephone and, up until recently, have been of two general types. The first and more common type is a means designed to obstruct the rotation of the dial, and thus to prevent dialing. The second type of telephone lock in use up until the present time is a clamp on the handset designed to prohibit its use. There might also be said to be a third general class of telephone locks -- that of a combination of the above two already described.
All of these common types of telephone locks have their disadvantages. The lock using the method of preventing rotation of the telephone dial is easy to circumvent by removal of the dial finger stop. Furthermore, the nature of its size and the necessity of entirely removing the device from the telephone to place an outgoing call renders this lock easy to lose or misplace. This type of lock is also restricted solely to the use of a cam-type lock. The second type of telephone lock, i.e., the handset clamp, is bulky, difficult to install, undesirably restricts incoming calls and is generally not practical. Obviously, those locks combining the features of both suffer the disadvantages of both.
The need for a practical telephone lock suitable for use with both dial-type and pushbutton-type telephone dial faces is an indisputable fact of modern day business life. It is therefore, a principal object of this invention to provide a telephone dial shielding device for selectively permitting or preventing access to the dialing area of a telephone face.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a shielding device for a telephone face which, when unlocked, does not need to be detached from the telephone body.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a telephone shielding device which may be locked with any locking means available at the time, e.g., combination lock, key lock or other like means.
Still another object of the present invention is to provide a locking device which may be used interchangeably on either a rotary dial or pushbutton telephone base and is easily installed on both.
The above objects are accomplished with the telephone shielding device which is the subject of this invention. Accordingly, to the general features of the invention, a frame is adapted to be firmly clamped in place upon the telephone body. Attached to this frame by means of hinges on one side of the frame is a shield which, in the preferred embodiment of this invention, has, on the side opposite the hinges, a slotted projection constructed to fit over a hasp secured to the frame. When the slotted projection is placed over the hasp, a lock may be positioned through the hasp, thereby securing the dial face from use. In this manner, outgoing calls may not be made, although incoming calls may still be answered.
Other advantages of the present invention will be readily apparent from the following detailed description of the preferred embodiment thereof, taken in view of the accompanying drawings in which: